15/01/2018 (malaysiandigest.com) - KUALA LUMPUR -- The Malaysian Felda Youth Council (MBFM) and the Malaysian Youth Council (MBM) today jointly protested against the resolution by the European Union (EU) that only environmentally sustainable palm oil could be exported to EU after 2020.

They described the resolution as an act of discrimination against palm oil and palm oil-based products.

MBFM president Muhammad Fadzli Hasan said the sanction would affect the value of palm oil exports worth RM60 billion a year and threaten more than 600,000 palm oil smallholders, including 112,635 people who were Felda settlers.

"Their income will be affected because Felda produces at least 3.3 million metric tons (palm oil) in a year. This EU sanction will affect the stability of the country's economy, as well as impact on Felda settlers," he told a press conference to protest against the resolution here today.

He said MBFM with MBM would submit a memorandum of protest against the EU's palm oil export restriction to all 17 EU nations’ embassies tomorrow after obtaining more than 100,000 signatures of Felda settlers nationwide.

In April (2017), the European Parliament in a non-binding resolution said that only environmentally sustainable palm oil could be imported into the EU after 2020.

It claimed it was the expansion of plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia which saw farmers using the felling and burning methods to open areas, destroying rainforests and animal habitats, as well as causing severe haze in parts of Asia.

Meanwhile MBM president Mua'amar Ghadafi Jamal Jamaludin also pointed out that the EU's action was against the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) under the United Nations, one of which was the reduction of poverty.

"MBM will bring this issue into discussions at the international level via international youth conferences and we will be together with youth leaders from the affected countries like Indonesia and Thailand.

"We are going to put pressure on the EU and hope that this matter will be reviewed, besides calling on the EU to withdraw the announcement of the export restrictions on palm oil and palm oil products because the reasons given by the EU to impose sanctions on Malaysian palm oil are baseless and irrelevant," he explained. .

He was confident of Felda's standard operating procedure and said it was important to enlighten EU countries that the Malaysian palm oil production process and quality of palm oil were world-class.

-- BERNAMA